An anonymously sourced report by The Times in London stated that SoftBank Group Corp. quietly bought just less than 5 percent of Charter (Nasdaq: CHTR) stock; a purchase of 5 percent or more would trigger a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the report, the purchase would lay the foundation for a $100 billion merger between Sprint (NYSE: S) and Charter. Charter’s market cap is $85.68 billion.

The report triggered another wave of merger speculation because SoftBank tried to make a deal with Charter in July but reportedly faced pushback from Charter executives on a buyout.

In November, after merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc. ended, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure confirmed that SoftBank had “interest in potentially acquiring one of the cable companies.” Claure said that an offer was not formally made and that negotiations didn’t work out because Charter's company’s management “felt that they could go out on their own.”

According to The Times, Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge and other company management opposed a deal, but the company’s largest shareholder, Liberty Media, and director John Malone were reportedly in favor.

Sprint’s leadership, for its part, has indicated multiple times that a tie-up between cable and a carrier will be the future of telecom. In November, Sprint struck a deal with Altice USA that would give both companies access to each other’s networks, allowing Sprint to accelerate its buildout.

"We've said it very publicly. We believe eventually there's going to need to be a tie-up between a telco and cable," Claure said at the time. "We want to test the concept.”